US Council of Economic Advisors: Delay on climate action will cost us

NSF

Today, the president's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) released a report that describes the costs that would ensue if the world fails to get its greenhouse gas emissions under control. The report doesn't break new ground, but it neatly summarizes the current state of economic analysis on carbon emissions. The report suggests that allowing the Earth to warm by three degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels (we've already used up one of those three degrees) would entail costs of $190 billion every year, with the price rising steeply thereafter.

But the report also lays out the case that acting sooner rather than waiting makes better economic sense. And it notes that any action at all would function as an insurance policy against some of the more extreme scenarios that haven't been ruled out.

The White House's CEA is meant to be a clearinghouse for national economic data. Various other government agencies prepare reports on things like the GDP and employment rate; the CEA aggregates this data, prepares reports on the general state of the economy, and analyzes the implications for the president's economic policies.